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Topic: Work For Free... (Read 2609 times)

would i be bad/weird if i ask a pizza shop owner if i could work for free just to learn everything about how to run a pizza shop? only for a few weeks. I'm in San Diego, Ca and i want to open a NY style pizzeria, but want to know the ups and DOwns about it..

I am not a pizza operator but if I were I wouldn't be interested in your proposition. It might even cost me money, especially if I had to insure you for such common chores like delivering pizza. I also wouldn't be happy if you did not tell me that you would be leaving in a few weeks. It's also highly doubtful that you would learn much in a few weeks. This is a subject that was discussed before on the forum, as you will see at this thread: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3365.msg28457.html#msg28457. You might get lucky and find someone who is willing to take you on for only a few weeks, but a pizza operator would have to be in rough shape to do this and would perhaps assign you to the worst chores. You would be free, grunt labor.

Despite your good intentions, you would not legally be allowed to work for free. You would have to commit yourself to filling out all the paperwork as a normal employee, receive some form of monetary compensation, and at the employer's discretion, work for longer than just a few weeks. As Peter said, it would cost them too much money to take you on for such a short time. It's usually several months before a business recoups the cost of training an employee.

That's not such a bad idea........if i were thinking about opening my own place I would do the same thing..........the key is being up front with the owner............hey, he might welcome some free labor in exchange for information.........I would love to have access to a comercial pizza oven for a few weeks to play with!!.....I think you would learn quite a bit in a few weeks just being there......you won't know unless you try...........